ATK’s dominant 3-0 victory over a sturdy NorthEast United side was all due to a classic display of attacking football from their two forwards – Australia’s David Williams and Fiji’s Roy Krishna. An instant hit at the ATK camp, the duo of Williams and Krishna have played together at Wellington Phoenix in Australia’s A-League before joining the Indian Super League (ISL).

Williams started playing in the A-League in 2009 and joined Wellington Phoenix in 2018 after spells with North Queensland Fury, Sydney FC, Melbourne City and Haladas respectively. However, his counterpart, Krishna signed for Wellington back in 2014 and went on to score 51 goals and provided 26 assists in his 122 appearances for the side.

The Fijian enjoyed remarkable success in the 2018-19 season as he ended up winning the A-League Golden Boot award with 18 goals to his name that season.

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However, the success was shared between the duo as during his sole season with Wellington, Williams scored 11 goals in 27 matches and developed an invaluable partnership with Krishna, who also took the Best Player of the Year award during that season.

The 31-year-old, Williams averaged almost 1.5 key passes a match while maintaining a 170.9 minutes per goal ratio while his shooting accuracy of 53.7 per cent only complimented his successful outing in the league that season.

Although Wellington finished sixth during the 2018-2019 campaign in the A-League, Williams’ and Krishna’s goal scoring prowess prompted ATK to sign both the players.

Williams followed suit after Krishna’s arrival at ATK this season and the duo have only expanded the horizon of their game. The Fijian sits at the top of the leading goal scorers in the ISL so far while Williams has scored four in his seven appearances in the league. Out of the 15 goals scored by ATK in all their outings yet, 10 have come from the feet of Williams and Krishna. 

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Williams is renowned for his pace and the pair keeps switching positions to keep the tempo of the game in their favour. However, Williams and Krishna’s best performance came against NorthEast United where both ended up on the score sheet and asserted the dominance of the two-time league champions.

“It is good for us to have top strikers like Krishna and Williams. They are in good form right now and that is a big advantage for us. We want to keep them scoring and help us win matches.” ATK’s coach, Antonio Lopez Habas has praised the attacking ability of his strikers giving them credit to propel the team to yet another successful campaign.

ATK have won four of the seven games yet but given the form of their lethal striking duo of Williams and Krishna, we can surely expect some more big victories down the line.

Featured image courtesy: Facebook /@RoyKrishna21

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